Upon review, this wasn’t such a good idea at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter.

The signs were ripped down by students shortly after they went up.

Fox 9 News reports they were put up by student groups “in an effort to help educate our peers and campus community about issues of bias, and the importance of being an active bystander.” In other words: shock value.

“I think the biggest thing was they left it open to interpretation when they posted the poster without context,” Sean Hinnenkamp, a senior, told Fox 9.

It didn’t require much interpretation, although it didn’t defend everybody.

“For me, this is not a big deal because this happens pretty often around me or with my friends or with myself,” Syed Aiziz Haider Shah told the station. “And personally, I don’t have anger. I just feel like these people need to get more educated than me.”

The dean of students at Gustavus knew of the plan, Fox 9 says.

City Pages reports it was all the work of the school’s Diversity Leadership Council, which apologized.

“We want to help put an end to bias-related incidents that happen on our campus, social media, and in our communities by forcing individuals to have dialogues about forms of hate and bias,” a statement said. “We hope that members of the campus community will reflect on today’s events and join us in ensuring that no one student or group of students are ever a victim of this form of discrimination.”

About the blogger

Bob Collins has been with Minnesota Public Radio since 1992, emigrating to Minnesota from Massachusetts. He was senior editor of news in the ’90s, ran MPR’s political unit, created the MPR News regional website, invented the popular Select A Candidate, started several blogs, and every day laments that his Minnesota Fantasy Legislature project never caught on.

NewsCut is a blog featuring observations about the news. It provides a forum for an online discussion and debate about events that might not typically make the front page. NewsCut posts are not news stories.